November 6, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“’[On that Day] Holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite [merchant, slave to another god] in the house of the Lord Almighty.‘” (Zechariah 14.20-21)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

We cannot miss the foreshadowing of the Temple tempest as Jesus confronted the High Priest and his business partners with their unholy activities. As is the case many times, the condemnation of the desecration of the Temple by foreign armies which was raised by that same Temple leadership pales in comparison to what they did themselves. On that day when Jesus spoke against it, verbally and non-verbally, there was little doubt about the shades of righteous anger which abounded. The current leadership was indignant. Jesus was adamant. The buying and selling conducted by the “merchants of the priests,” as I would call them, was slowly infiltrating the inner sanctuary of prayer of the nations for the nations. Isn’t that the way of invasion? The practice of taking what is common and flooding it into what is “set aside” as vitally important sounds a lot like the formula for how to boil a frog. You know that one, right? You put a frog in a Dutch oven pot and slowly turn up the heat. As the frog becomes acclimated to the situation, it is overcome by the boiling water when the temperature has risen sufficiently. Weary of swimming in ever warming water, lethargy takes place and commonsense leaves. Was that what Jesus was seeing when He came as the unannounced or announced Son of David, Prince of Peace, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Messiah and Christ? Was the common practice of buying and selling for the sake of “salvation,” earned by the love for money, seductive and alluring and deceptive?

Now, Zechariah is exposed to the revelation of the use of common elements in the practice of Jewish worship in the temple. One only needs to read the scripts of elements used in the Temple for worship (and their grandeur) as well as the manifests of what was taken out of the Temple into the coffers of those conquering foreign nations and see what was missing. But in the absence of what was “required” there had to be a “make-do” effort to continue to praise and honor God in worship and in service. Now God, “on that Day,” was setting aside the common elements such as pots and pans to become sacred objects. It was not merely about the objects but the people themselves. Even the outsider who brought little to nothing but themselves in the desire to honor “the Lord Almighty” was empowered to become a part of the “glory to God” manifestation. In a similar fashion as was served prophetically in “The Feast of Tabernacles” to include the last fruit, that is- the Gentiles, so we hear of God’s willingness and desire to include all who would believe in Him. He would call them “His Own: Holy to the Lord.” The full manifestation would come with the presence of the Messiah. His call to righteousness was not only to restore the luster of Israel’s intended spiritual ministry to the world bringing all people to God in worship and praise but to “seek and save that which was lost.” The term “lost” carries with it the sense of “cast out,” “cast off” and “cast away.” Whether scapegoats or reluctant prophets like Jonah or willing evangelists like Paul, the sense of “lost” becomes vitally real for each of us.

No longer should we defile the place of worship, praise and prayer by introducing common elements as “okay and acceptable.” They should be scribed with the name of God, “Holy to the Lord,” and sanctified to their good purpose as God ordained. I cannot help but think again of Peter’s call to minister to Cornelius and his family in Joppa. The fear of unclean, cast out, cast away and cast off (including himself as he feared the Judaizers in Jerusalem) was undone by God who said “What I call clean is clean!” No questions asked. No excuses given. At least none that would convince God otherwise. He is still convinced that in Christ Jesus we are made clean, righteous, holy and acceptable in His sight and in His service. “On that Day” it will become abundantly clear as to the full meaning of “made new.”

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.